LOCAL bus company Network Warrington has won £523,000 of funding from the DfT under its Green Bus Competition.
A delighted David Squire, (pictured right) Managing Director said, “We are pleased to have obtained this funding through a competitive bidding round with other bus operators across England. This significant funding bridges the gap in price between a traditional diesel bus and a diesel-electric hybrid, and will mean that the company will now purchase 6 Optare Versa Diesel-Electric hybrid buses from Yorkshire based Optare Group, as part of its 2012 intake of new buses.
“These buses will deliver significant fuel savings of up to 30% compared to the buses that they replace, and will also improve the air quality across the town centre, whilst offering excellent standards of passenger comfort”.
The buses will be built at Optare’s factory near Leeds, using Mercedes Benz engines and featuring a Siemens series hybrid drive with super capacitor roof mounted energy storage, and are expected to be in service during the autumn.
5 Comments
Great news well done –
As a regular bus traveller I look forward to stepping about later this year. Hopefully one thing that some people may have tried last week during the fuel crisis was the bus.
Maybe better to develop hydrogen powered buses.
Maybe after saving the 30% we could have a fare reduction to encourage more passengers. We can all live in hope!!
Hope rather than expectation I think CTP. Aren’t bus fares heavily subsidised by Government grants?
No, bus fares are not heavily subsidised by grants. Senior citizen free travel is reimbursed by government, but that is a benefit to individual OAPs rather than bus companies.